Article: Top 10 K-Pop Groups With Sub-Units

K-Pop is the shortened form of Korean Pop Music. In Korea, K-Pop has become a tradition. Children get into Entertainment companies, train themselves for years or months, and bloom into colorful idols. Some of the idols debut as solo artists, while a majority of the idols debut as a group. A group can be as large as possible with many members in it. Many such K-Pop groups divide themselves officially into sub-units. These sub-units can be for producing music or for any specific purpose, and there can be more than one sub-units in a group. This article lists the top ten K-Pop groups with well-known sub-units of them.

1. Super Junior

Super Junior is the first K-Pop group to have sub-units under them. They debuted as a twelve-member group under SM Entertainment in 2005. The first sub-unit, "Super Junior K.R.Y," was formed in 2006 with Kyuhyun, Yesung, and Ryeowook. The other sub-units are Super Junior-T, Super Junior-M, Super Junior-Happy, and Super Junior-D&E made their debuts in 2007, 2008, and 2021. Currently, Super Junior K.R.Y and Super Junior-D&E are active.

2. NCT

Abbreviated to Neo Culture Technology, NCT is one of the well-known groups under SM Entertainment, having many sub-units under them. The group contains twenty-three members and four sub-units under them.

The sub-units are NCT U, NCT 127, NCT DREAM, and a Chinese unit called WayV. Lee Ta-Yong is the leader of NCT as a whole.Tayong is a part of NCT U and NCT 127. Each member in NCT belongs to one or more sub-units.

3. Seventeen

Seventeen is an eleven-membered group under Pledis Entertainment. Seventeen consists of three sub-units - the Hip-Hop Unit, the Performance Unit, and the Vocal Unit. There are four members in the Hip-Hop Unit and the Performance Unit, while the Vocal Unit consists of five. SVT Leaders is a sub-unit containing the leaders - S.Coups, Hoshi, and Woozi from the Hip-Hop Unit, the Performance Unit, and the Vocal Unit, respectively. "BooSeokSoon" is a sub-unit consisting of DK, Hoshi, and Seungkwan.

4. EXO

One of the well-respected groups in South Korea, EXO is currently an nine-membered group under SM Entertainment. When EXO made its debut in 2012, EXO consisted of twelve members divided equally into EXO-K and EXO-M, which stood for Korean and Mandarin Chinese. Later, EXO-CBX, with members Chen, Baekhyun, and Xiumin debuted in 2016. A sub-unit consisting of only the rappers, Sehun and Chanyeol, EXO-SC debuted in 2019.

5. Stray Kids

"Stray kids" are one of the reputed and well-known 4th generation K-Pop groups under JYP Entertainment. Stray Kids consists of 8 members, divided into three sub-units. They are 3RACHA, Dance Racha, and Vocal Racha. 3RACHA consists of the members - Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han, the sub-unit in charge of music production. Lee Know, Hyunjin, and Felix belong to Dance Racha, while Seungmin and I.N belong to Vocal Racha.

6. BTOB

BTOB made its debut in 2012 under Cube Entertainment. BTOB initially debuted with seven members. Later, in 2020, Ilhoon left the group. The group consists of two sub-units, BTOB BLUE and BTOB 4U. Hyunsik, Sungjae, Chansub and Eunkwang debuted as BTOB BLUE in 2016. Peniel, Changsub, Eunkwang and Minhyuk debuted as BTOB 4U in 2020.

7. LOONA

LOONA made its debut under BlockBerry Creative in 2018. The twelve-member girl group with three sub-units, LOONA 1/3, LOONA ODD EYE CIRCLE, and yyxy, was introduced in August 2018 at their concert LOONAbirth. Four members in the LOONA 1/3 unit, three in the ODD EYE CIRCLE unit, and five in the yyxy sub-unit leave out one member, YeoJin, who is a solo artist.

8. Apink

Apink is a reputed girl group under PlayM Entertainment. Apink originally debuted with seven members in 2011. Naeun and Yukyung were the former members who left the group in 2021 and 2013, respectively. Apink consists of four sub-unit. Namjoo, Eunji, and Chorong made their debt as JooJiRong in 2020 with a song named "Be My Self." Hayoung, Bomi, and Naeun formed a self-sub-unit named "Apink Y.O.S." The other two sub-units, "Apink CHOBOM" and "Apink BnN," have two members each.

9. WJSN

WJSN, also known as the Comic Girls, is a Korean-Chinese girl group under Yuehua and Starship Entertainment. They made their debut early in 2016 with their mini album, "WOULD YOU LIKE?" They have two sub-units - WJSN CHOCOME and WJSN THE BLACK. Soobin, Dayoung, Luda, and Yeoreum of WJSN CHOCOME made their debut in 2020. EXY, Eunseo, Seola, and Bona of WJSN THE BLACK made their debut in 2021.

10. Cherry Bullet

A seven-membered girl group formed under FNC Entertainment, Cherry Bullet, made its debut in 2019. The group consists of two sub-units, Cherry Chu and Cherry Blossom, with three members in each. Both sub-units haven't released any songs to make an official debut. Cherry Attack was another sub-unit under Cherry Bullet, but due to unknown reasons, the team disbanded.